We went to Memorial Day

Memorial Day is a location. Every year, for much longer than I can remember, this holiday has brought the Shirts family to the banks of a large pond in rural southern Utah County. I believe the tradition dates back to before my dad's birth.

Part of the Shirts clan at Salem Pond in 1983

My Grandma Shirts' grandparents helped to establish the towns of Payson and Benjamin. She grew up in Payson and met Grandpa at the Payson High School senior hop held at Arrowhead Resort and dance pavilion in Benjamin in 1935. Their graves are in the Payson cemetary. This is where they buried their first child, who died at the age of 14 months.

My dad and his siblings visiting the grave of their older brother on Memorial Day, 1956

It's only natural that we celebrate this holiday by visiting their graves (and those of Grandma's parents, both sets of grandparents and others). We always meet different distant relatives when we go to the Benjamin cemetary. Anyone viewing a Richardson, Stewart, or Hand family headstone (which constitute about half of the graves) is definitely related.

Then it's off to Salem Pond (Salem is the next town over from Payson), or as we refer to it, "Memorial Day." This was always a place of splendor. 

My sister has captured the feel of the place here. There was something magical to me about riding in the long, cut-out tires turned into swings. Capsizing the canoe and racing empty Shasta pop cans in the tiny canal from the hilltop to the pond were annual highlights when we were little. When I got a little bigger, diving from the bridge into the murky water and battle disguised as ultimate frisbee added to the excitement. Back in the day we'd always enjoy Grandma's homemade brownies, pumpkin and lemon meringue pies, and homemade macaroni and cheese. Add in the cousins and some competition in the form of Shirts Rummy, and you've got one awesomely memorable Memorial Day!

You'll know where to find us next May.

P.S. Salem Pond was the location of my first date with Natalie...it only took me eight months to  ask her out after we met. 

 This light post's foundation sits about 2.5 feet above ground level.

Action Jackson

Yep, Jackson is crawling! I think we could consider yesterday (Sunday, May 24) as his first day really crawling. I'm so torn in so many ways about it---of course, it is exciting that he's learning new things and so fun to see him develop. I'm also grateful that he can learn and develop. And it's kinda nice that he can get what he wants now without needing me to scoot things closer. But at the same time it's kind of sad that my baby is growing up...and then there is the dread of having a mobile baby who can get into everything! We've just barely started baby-proofing and we have a ton more to do. We'd better do it fast!

Jackson still isn't very fast but I'm sure that is just a matter of days. Sometimes gets a little confused on how to get his legs to cooperate and move how he wants them to and it's kind of funny to watch. But he can officially crawl! Check it out for yourself:

(and, as always, ignore my silly sounding narration!)

5/27/09: It took me three days to get the video to post...since then, he has gotten much better. It looks like it takes a lot less effort to get where he wants to go and he's getting a little faster. Time to put up the gate on the stairs!

Mother's Day, push-ups, and wind

I've missed posting a few pictures lately that I meant to, so here they all are at once:

Me and my child on my first official Mother's Day as a mother. Somehow the day meant more to me this year than it has before :)
Grandpa Shirts gave Jackson some crawling lessons. I think they're working because he's getting pretty close to really crawling by himself. I'll have to post a video of it one of these days. He's scooting pretty well and sometimes actually gets the real hand and knee movement.

Sometimes he just does push-ups though. The army recruiters are going to be after this kid when they find out about his strength!

He's trying to be more independent these days. When I feed him he puts his spoon into the jar of food as I hold it. He doesn't really put it in his mouth yet though...mostly just flings it around the kitchen. Needless to say, meal time is quite messy.

Check out this wind! A storm was blowing in the other day and we went outside to enjoy it. Jackson was loving the wind at first--then it got to be a little to much for him. But sweet hair-do though, huh?

He's eating more and more finger food and big people food...here he has some mixed veggies

And a new favorite game: shred the kleenex. He loves to tear kleenex or napkins to pieces. He knows he's not supposed to put it in his mouth though...he'll start to and then look up at me with a sneaky/guilty look on his face and then stop and laugh. Silly kid!

Fire's burning

On Friday night we went up the canyon and had a little bonfire with Jordan and Shawn. We made hobo dinners (ok, we cheated and cooked them in the oven at home before we went and just re-heated them in the fire because they take too long in the fire) and then made s'mores. Yep, you guessed it: we used our awesome telescoping marshmallow roasting sticks. And it was awesome indeed. I could see the envy in the eyes of other s'more makers all around. We had a good system going---we'd put the chocolate on the grahm cracker on a board by the fire to get the chocolate nice and melty, then we'd roast the mallow and assemble the s'more. Anyway, we had fun and Jackson liked the fire and being outside. He was up past his bedtime and so when he was done, he was done. We donated our fire to some people next to us who were going to start their own pretty soon, and headed home. We're planning on going camping some time this summer and I'm excited about that :)

Jumbo Shrimp

We had Jackson's 9-month doctor check up today. I had the suspicion that he hadn't gained much weight in the past three months since his last check up. Well, I was right. He's lost .13 lbs. He now weighs 16 lbs 7 oz, dropping him from the 25th percentile to the 2nd. The doctor said to spend the next six weeks trying to beef him up, and then go back to weigh in again... He eats quite a bit of baby food already, it's just the milk he's lacking. He'll nurse well in the morning when he first gets up, and then he'll do alright in the evening a little bit before bedtime, but during the day he just won't really nurse. He's just too interested in everything and anything else and just plays. He doesn't take a bottle or sippy cup either, and now isn't drinking from a real cup like he used to. I'm not really sure how to get more into him. The doctor said if he won't take formula, we can try mixing whole milk with half and half...it's not what's in the bottle/sippy that is the problem, it's getting him to drink it. I'm going to start mixing his cereal with formula instead of water, but beyond that, I'm not sure what else to do.
The good news is that he was off the charts at 150th percentile for cuteness factor, but I already knew that too.
His head size is also dropping in percentile, now at the 5th percentile--but Dr. Simmons didn't seem concerned about that so I guess I'm not either?
He is 28 inches long, in the 42nd percentile so about average there.
One of the first things he said to me when he walked in and looked at Jackson was that he's orange. Yep, I knew that too. He said that can be a sign of anemia so they did a blood test for that, but it came back ok. I guess he just eats a lot of orange veggies? I try to balance it out, but have you ever looked at the baby food aisle? there really are a lot more orange ones than green. And most of the mixed veggies that have peas and beans in them are still orange. So my baby is orange.
Under-weight, average length, little head, orange, and exceedingly cute but overall a healthy baby.

Nine months

Nine months---it's really kind of funny to think about. In nine months, we went from a secret tiny speck of a little living thing to a living and breathing 7 lb baby boy. And then in another nine months we went from that newborn baby to where we are today.
...check back tomorrow for his stats after his 9 month check up.
Jackson really is getting more and more fun as he gets older. He's so much more interactive and his personality is showing through.
When I'm holding him and someone talks to him he'll turn and bury his face in me to hide and then will peek out with a big grin.
The other day I was getting him ready for bed...he was laying on his changing table and I took his socks off of him. He grabbed one of them out of my hand and was playing with it. I held the other one up for him to take, but I must have let go before he really had it. I went on changing his diaper then looked at his face and the sock was over his face and he just had a huge grin. As soon as I looked at him he just started laughing---it was like he was just holding the pose waiting for me to see. It was so cute & funny.

He likes to open the bathroom and desk drawers and pull himself up on them.
He likes to empty baskets and containers lately...clothes from the laundry basket, toys from his toy baskets, anything. He hasn't gotten the putting them back in thing yet though.
He can sit himself up from laying down. This is pretty exciting for me because it means I don't have to set him up so much. He's sooo close to crawling. He'll go from sitting up to forward on his hands and knees and will kind of rock a bit. He'll reach for things but just ends up on his tummy.
I'm not sure how he's moving, but he'll be sitting up in one spot and then I look back a minute later and he's sitting up in another spot three feet away.
He still loves to be outside. We go for a walk around the neighborhood, play outside on a blanket, or swing at the little park across the street several times a week. The weather is just perfect for it now!
He's got six teeth now, 4 on top and 2 on bottom.
Most days, he loves to eat. He usually goes through 6 or 7 jars' worth of stage 2 baby food per day, sometimes eating three at a time.
He still loves finger foods. Sometimes I have to distract him with cheerios to be able to get him to sit down in his highchair.
Night time sleeping is so much better, as I mentioned a few days ago. He's pretty much sleeping through the night for 11 to 12 hours. He wakes up some nights but usually goes back to sleep on his own within a few minutes. It is amazing! I realized the other day that I actually enjoy putting him down to sleep now. It was something I dreaded, but I really love spending that time with him now that it doesn't end with screaming and crying.
Naps aren't so great, but we're working on it.
He had his first haircut 3 weeks ago...I meant to do a post about it before, but never did. His hair was so long! It was almost down to his nose in the front. It was kind of tricky to cut it because he kept wanting to see and grab the scissors, so it was just a real quick trim, but I think it makes him look more grown up.
He loves his Aunt Jordan. He's done better with babysitters lately (at least I think---I guess I'm not there when he's alone with them).
One thing I'm less thrilled about---he started grinding his teeth together. It gives me the heebie-geebies. How do I get him to stop?

Such a cute, fun, loving, sweet, happy baby boy! He sure is growing up though! Sometimes I look at him and he looks more like a little toddler boy than a baby. I sure do love him!

Sleep update

I guess I owe it to Jackson to share our success in night time sleeping. I didn't post about it yet because I was afraid it wouldn't last. Last time I celebrated him sleeping through the night, it all went downhill quickly. But I am very excited to announce that Jackson is now sleeping through the night, 11 or 12 hours a night!
Three weeks ago we decided that we really just needed to let him cry it out. We had tried just about everything we could think of, and we had some progress, but not enough. We decided not to go in there while he was crying, and to just let him fall asleep on his own. When we had tried going in there before it seemed to just get him more upset when we left. The first night was pretty bad. It took 2 1/2 hours of him crying before he finally went to sleep. He woke up one other time that night and it took a little while for him to go back to sleep, but then slept the rest of the night. Night number two he went to sleep easily and slept through the entire night. The next two nights it took a bit for him to go to sleep (nothing like the first night though). Since then, things have continued to improve.
We start at about 7:30 and go through our nightly routine of brushing teeth, changing diaper, putting on pj's, reading a story, saying prayer, cuddling for a few minutes, and then while he is still awake, I put him down in his crib with his little doll that he sometimes uses as a pillow and six soothers in hopes that he can find one if he needs it in the night. Some nights he doesn't even make a sound and just goes right to sleep. Usually he fusses a little bit but stops by the time I'm to the end of the stairs. Occasionally we still have nights where he'll cry for thirty minutes or so before falling asleep. He generally sleeps through the whole night until somewhere between 6:30 and 8:00....He'll make some sounds and sometimes fuss a little bit during the night, but we have only had to go in there a couple of times. It is just a wonderful thing to have him sleeping on his own! It does kind of either force us to either be at home by 7:30 in the evenings or have a fussy and tired baby on our hands if we're out somewhere, but I think it's worth it.
Naps aren't so great...We still try for (and he still needs) two naps a day. It seems like he often only takes one, and some days he doesn't nap at all. I'll put him down but sometimes he just cries for half an hour and then I get him up again. If he is still acting grumpy and tired, I'll try putting him down again an hour later and sometimes he'll sleep then, sometimes not. Sundays are really hard because he can't really sleep in and then misses his morning nap because we're at church. He used to fall asleep in my arms at church and would at least get a little nap there, but not any more. Then he usually doesn't get an afternoon one either for one reason or another. But most days he does take one nap, ranging anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 1/2 hrs, usually towards the shorter end. I just wish he'd go down as easily for naps as he does at night now!

...sorry there are no pictures. I've gone in his room to take some of him sleeping, but I'm afraid it'll wake him up so I haven't done it.

The Best Two Years

As awesome as my 333rd Monthday was on Sunday, yesterday was even awesomer! (yes, that's a word). Cinco de Mayo was our second wedding anniversary. Yay us! It's funny how quickly the past two years have flown by...I know, I know...so will the next 25. 

Cinco de Mayo 2007

Our friends Aaron & Maren were really great to offer to watch Jackson for the evening. Afterall, they have a close connection since Natalie was in labor at their sealing, wedding breakfast, and reception. Jackson was born just 10 hours after we left the reception. Jackson and those two love birds are tight. But I digress.

Getting a babysitter is a small price to pay for this addition to our family (especially when the babysitters don't charge you).

Natalie & I enjoyed a delightful evening together. We had dinner at P.F. Chang's and then went to the Provo Temple for a sealing session. I think that's the first time we've really been out to eat together (just the two of us) since Jackson was born. We followed that up with dipped cones at Arctic Circle.

Wedding Anniversary 2009. This is what happens when you face the sun and use the hood of the car as a tripod.

Perhaps you've noticed that our blog address includes the words "Lucky Shirts." Well, it doesn't take an anniversary to remind me how lucky I am to be married to Natalie. I sang The Luckiest by Ben Folds at our wedding luncheon and I truly feel blessed. We had a rather storied dating experience, and I really don't know how things turned out the way they did, but I'll be forever grateful.

Engagement pic. (check out all that hair)

Natalie is my best friend and the best thing that has happened to me. I won't get all mushy and gushy and oozy here, but I'm grateful for the amazing woman, friend, wife, and mother she is. 

I love your guts, Natalie!

hubba hubba

Wedding Anniversary 2008

Cutest Mom